A 25-year old bar dancer in Telangana’s capital city Hyderabad was allegedly stripped and brutally assaulted by five of her colleagues on Friday night for refusing to have sex with a customer, The New Indian Express reported. Others reports said the incident took place on Sunday. The attackers dragged her out and stripped her on the main road in Shamshabad.
The Panjagutta police have arrested four attackers – Ritika, Sweety, Rekha and Vijaya Reddy – and produced them in court. Another accused, identified as Syed, is still on the run.
“Because I refused the pub management’s directions to entertain customers by performing sexual acts, four women colleagues, also bar dancers, dragged me out and stripped me,” the woman alleged. “Later, the miscreants assaulted me brutally, along with Syed.”
The woman accused the police of doing nothing to rescue her. She said customers in inebriated condition helped her.
When the woman approached the police station in tattered clothes and injured, she said their “compassion” was missing even then. “After I approached the Panjagutta police, with help from customers, the cops collected details from me and said they would look into the matter,” she added. “Minutes later, four persons who assaulted me also came to the station, and the police had friendly discussions with them.”
The woman, who earlier used to work as a junior artiste in Tollywood, joined the Lisbon Restrobar as a dancer in January because of lack of opportunities. The bar owner is reportedly a close friend of a senior political leader.
The bar management dismissed the incident and said it happened outsider their premises. The staff have also allegedly threatened the woman not to lodge a police complaint.
The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 354 (using criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her), 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The woman also alleged that officials from the Punjagutta police station collect bribes from the bar management even though bar dances are illegal in Hyderabad. West Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police AR Srinivas said he would “inquire into” her allegations against the policemen.
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